Comparison of Physical Activity between Traditional and Homeschool Elementary School Students: a pilot study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to was to examine the difference between the moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and time spent sedentary behavior (SEB) between traditional and homeschool elementary students during one school week. Methods: There was a total of 25 participants (mean age = 8.8 ± 1.6 years; 10 girls, 15 boys), 13 traditional school students (mean age = 9.5 ± 0.7 years; 5 girls, 8 boys) who were recruited from an elementary school and a sample of 12 homeschool students (mean age = 8.1 ± 2.1 years; 5 girls, 7 boys) were also recruited. Participants were required to wear an Actigraph wGT3X-BT accelerometer (ActiGraph, Florida, USA) on their dominant wrist during each day of data collection between the time frame of 10:00am to 2:00pm. The MVPA and SEB measures were recorded using a 15s epoch at 100Hz sampling rate and was calculated using the Freedson children cut points. The data exported and averaged was calculated for time in MVPA and SEB for each participant. Results: On average, the traditional school participants demonstrated higher levels of MVPA (MVPA average ± SD = 64.21 ± 8.5, p = .508, t = 2.2, df = 23) and lower levels of SEB (SEB average ± SD = 23.1 ± 7.9, p = .968, t = 3.2, df = 23) when compared to their homeschool counterparts levels of MVPA (MVPA average ± SD = 56.24 ± 9.5, p = .508, t = 2.2, df = 23) and SEB (SEB average ± SD = 33.27 ± 7.9, p = .968, t = 3.2, df = 23). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the MVPA and SEB of both groups. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that traditional elementary students may be more physically active, as they demonstrated more time in MVPA and less time in SEB, however there was no statistically significant difference present between the two groups levels of PA.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Lopez, Xavier Santiago

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Fu, You

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Fu, You
• Constantino, Nora
• Liu, Leping

• accelerometers
• homeschool students
• physical activity
• traditional students

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/10513

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/10513